My favorite #DisneyCastLife event of the year is back! Goofy’s Mystery Tour – this year dubbed Goofy’s Mystiki Tour – is a cast-only competition packed with challenging Disney trivia, brain teaser puzzles, and a dash of scavenger hunting, with about 300 teams competing in Disney’s Animal Kingdom after the park closes. I want to share why this event means so much to me and the very special person who makes it unforgettable every single year.
Cast members from all lines of business can form a four-person team and compete. My team includes me, representing Walt Disney World communications, one of my good friends from EPCOT attractions, Disney Cruise Line communications and our clutch player, my mom, Janet! She flies in from Chicago every single year just to compete with us!
Each team has the opportunity to make their fourth teammate a family member or friend, and when there’s a #DisneyCastLife exclusive event where I can bring a guest, my first phone call is always to my mom. If you know me, you know that I always say that in our family “MOM” stands for “Maker of Magic.” My mom surprised me with my very first trip to Walt Disney World when I was just four years old and I was hooked. I didn’t know it then, but that trip set me on a path. It’s no surprise that I did a Disney College Program and then stayed to continue my career with the company. It’s because of my mom’s love, hard work, and passion in making magic for me that I get to have a career making magic for others.
“I got to ride Guardians of the Galaxy, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, see the new Villains show all before they opened as your guest at cast previews. I’ve seen you sing in Cast Choir in the EPCOT Candlelight Processional,” my mom shared. “But by far, my favorite Cast thing that you get to do is Goofy’s Mystery Tour because we get to do it together and because it is really challenging but really exciting.”
And when she says it’s challenging, she means it. Every year, I host a virtual practice session for our team. We quiz each other on Disney trivia and then I assign everyone study topics like international parks, Disney history, Marvel and Star Wars, movies, TV shows and more. Pretty much anything under the Disney umbrella is fair game.
After trivia, we practice puzzles or revisit ones that we struggled with in previous years, and this is where my mom truly shines. She sails through the puzzles easily and makes a huge difference in our team’s success. “Shout out to the cast members on the Clue Crew,” she said. “They create so many engaging puzzles year after year and it’s my favorite part of the night.”
Each year my mom also takes us out to a team dinner as a way to say thank you for inviting her to compete. No thanks necessary, I just love having her here. It’s become one of my favorite traditions. It’s a chance to reconnect with friends, laugh, and fully step into the spirit of the event before we head to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I don’t get to work with the cast members on my team every day like I used to, so the teamwork and strategy that comes with Goofy’s Mystery Tour feel like a fun throwback to old times.
As we expected, this year’s event was amazing. When we were debriefing on the ride home, Alyssa said, “Genuinely, every moment was filled with so much fun!”
Celina added, “Yes! The way we just bounce off of each other and got each puzzle done was so incredible.”
And it really was incredible. One of us would start a puzzle and if we got stuck, another teammate would jump in to help. Even when we were stumped by a puzzle or hunting for clues around Asia, we were still cracking jokes and soaking in the magical experience created for cast members. Best of all, we solved all 12 clue puzzles for the third year in a row! It was one of those nights where we had such a blast that we were already talking about next year before we even got home.
I’ll be honest, we take this event seriously, but we still aren’t a top-scoring team in the bunch. Our P.R. (personal record) is in the fun and not the points. And I think that’s what this event is really about. I’ve stayed in touch with old co-workers that became friends, and I get to bring my mom into a piece of the magic we experience each day. Working at Disney just isn’t like working anywhere else.
At the end of the day, Goofy’s Mystiki Tour is more than a competition to me. It’s a reminder of why so many of us choose to build our careers here. Disney creates opportunities not just to work, but to learn, grow, try new amazing things and then share moments of wonder with the people who matter most, our families and fellow cast members.
